7 Easy New Year's Resolutions You Can Actually Keep

How about starting off the year with a few easy New Year's resolutions for a healthier 2012. After all, one little brush with goal-setting success just may kick-start your commitment to your larger health goals (hello, eating better or hitting the gym more often).

Stop Social Smoking

You're at a party and your friends go outside for a smoke. You decide to join because you think just one cigarette won't hurt. Not so, says Stella Daskalopoulou, a researcher at McGill University Health Centre in Canada. Her recent study found that smoking even one cigarette increases the stiffness of the arteries in 18-to-30-year-olds by 25 percent. Stiff arteries can cause the heart to work harder, increasing the risk for heart disease or stroke. "This is especially bad for occasional smokers because you're not used to the effects and it's stressful to your system," she says.

Be Nicer to People

Want a promotion in 2012? Try being more giving to your coworkers. The results of a University of California, Berkeley, study showed that generous participants were more likely to gain respect and cooperation from their peers—leading researchers to conclude that they'd be more likely to rise in status as well.

Quit Tanning Beds for Good

You may like when your skin has a sun-kissed look, but getting that glow from a tanning bed may be killing you. In fact, cancer experts moved tanning beds and solar radiation into the top cancer-risk category—saying they're deadly! According to current research, the risk of skin cancer jumps by 75 percent when people start using tanning beds before the age of 30.

Stop Late-Night Snacking

Eating past bedtime may be a worse habit than you think. "When you eat at the wrong time, your body will take the calories and store them as fat because you don't need the calories for fuel at that time," says Deanna Arble, the lead author of the Northwestern University study about the timing of food intake. "You could eat vegetables late at night and those calories will still be stored."

Floss Your Pearly Whites More Often

Your dentist is right about this one: It's important to floss. New York University researchers examined 51 sets of twins and found that the twin who didn't floss had more bacteria, which leads to gum disease. Eek!

Eat Less Fat

Although this falls under the simple resolution to eat better, you may want to emphasize cutting the fat from your diet. Rats fed a high-fat diet showed a major reduction in physical endurance and a decline in their cognitive ability after just nine days, reports a study by Oxford University researchers. After a little more than a week of eating poorly, the rats were able to run only 50 percent as far on the treadmill as those that remained on the low-fat diet. Why? Fat is a far less efficient fuel than glucose from carbohydrates. Stick with pastas, fish and low-fat yogurts for more energy all day!

Don't Go to Bed Angry

There really may be something to that old adage. A recent study found a link between couples' sleep quality and the quality of their relationship. A bad night's sleep leads to conflict during the day, which leads to more bad sleep the following night. The lead researcher recommends that couples avoid confrontational discussions on a day after you or your beau had a bad night's sleep.

Stop Social Smoking

You're at a party and your friends go outside for a smoke. You decide to join because you think just one cigarette won't hurt. Not so, says Stella Daskalopoulou, a researcher at McGill University Health Centre in Canada. Her recent study found that smoking even one cigarette increases the stiffness of the arteries in 18-to-30-year-olds by 25 percent. Stiff arteries can cause the heart to work harder, increasing the risk for heart disease or stroke. "This is especially bad for occasional smokers because you're not used to the effects and it's stressful to your system," she says.